The Limehouse Text

In The Limehouse Text, Barker and Llewelyn discover a pawn ticket among
the effects of Barker's late assistant, leading them to London's Chinese
district, Limehouse. There they retrieve an innocent-looking book that
proves to be a rare and secret text stolen from a Nanking monastery. When
they take it to Ho, Barker's favorite restaurateur, for inspection, they
discover that it contains lethal martial arts techniques forbidden to the
West. With the political situation between the British Empire and Imperial
China already precarious, the duo must safeguard the text from a snarl of
suspects with conflicting interests -- and track down a killer intent upon
gaining the secret knowledge.

Prowling through an underworld of opium dens, back-room blood sports, and
sailors' penny hangs while avoiding the wrath of the district's powerful
warlord, Mr. K'ing, Barker and Llewelyn take readers on a perilous tour
through the mean streets of turn-of-the-century London.

Praise for The Limehouse Text

Mystery writer's 'Limehouse' volume charms

By John Orr
Special to the Mercury News

Will Thomas is proving to be one of those rare mystery novelists who really smack 'em out
of the park with their first books, and then just keep swattin' 'em out as they go along.

An Oklahoma librarian, Thomas took a reported five years to write his first, brilliant
mystery, "Some Danger Involved," which was published in 2004; then came back in 2005 with
another great one, "To Kingdom Come"; and here he is with another winner, "The Limehouse
Text."

Thomas invented a great detective team for his thrill-filled series, which takes place in
the gritty London of the 1880s: Cyrus Barker, a world-traveled, multilingual "inquiry
agent," and Thomas Llewelyn, his Welsh assistant.

Llewelyn was heartbroken, starving and nearly ready to end his life when Barker hired him
for the job that had "Some Danger Involved." Together, they are one of the great detective
duos, a la Holmes and Watson or Wolfe and Goodwin.

"The Limehouse Text" takes place in 1885, almost a year after the events of "Some Danger
Involved." The title object is an instruction book for an amazing form of Chinese martial
arts that has already been responsible for several deaths among people who have touched
the text.

" 'It's a rather special manual,' " Barker explains. " 'It teaches, for one thing, a way
to disrupt the body's internal functions, killing someone without a sign. . . . It gets
worse,' Barker said, crossing his arms. 'Death need not be instantaneous. With the
training from the book, one could disrupt a system -- let us say the circulative system --
of someone in the morning merely by touch, and that person could die that night after a
normal day's activity. Or the next day or a week later.' "

In the world of the 19th century, such a martial art could be a weapon of mass
destruction, which is why so many groups -- including the British secret service, Chinese
tongs and others -- want to get their hands on it.

Barker and Llewelyn, however, just want to solve the murders associated with the book and
save the lives of themselves and their friends in the process. And then decide what to do
with the book.

Thomas -- who has deeply researched the London of the 1800s -- gives us another
fascinating tour of its upper- and lower-class environs, and a look at the culture of
martial arts of the time. One of the reasons why Barker is in such danger in this book --
and he is -- is that if he is white, he's not supposed to have learned some of the martial
arts he puts to use in this tale's many fights. And therefore he must die. But could he
really be of Chinese heritage? And if so, why does he say he is Scottish? His eyes are
always hidden behind his smoked-glass spectacles, and his personal history is mysterious.

This series started strong, with a solid personality and charm, and is getting better as
it goes along.